Luis Alberto admits full well that Lazio ‘did not deserve’ to be leading against Fiorentina before their defeat and is frustrated they ‘keep taking one step forward and two steps back.’
The Spanish midfielder had put the Aquile in front at the Stadio Artemio Franchi against the run of play, after they had been rescued three times by the woodwork, for his first Serie A goal since October.
However, even with Nico Gonzalez missing a penalty, Fiorentina still managed to turn it around for a 2-1 victory with Michael Kayode and Giacomo Bonaventura.
“We didn’t do enough,” Luis Alberto told Sky Sport Italia.
“I really don’t know what to say, it was a game where we did not deserve to be leading at half-time. In the second, despite it seeming like a lucky night for us, we still failed to make the most of it, wasted a counter-attack for 2-0 and then conceded straight away.”
This result allows Fiorentina to leapfrog Lazio into seventh place in the Serie A table and the odds of closing on those Champions League spots are now looking worrying.
“We have lost too many games recently and this was a very important fixture for the standings. We were not up to it today. We cannot give up now, there are still too many rounds to go, but the table is really tough now for Europe. We’ve got to talk less and train more.”
There is another huge fixture coming up on Friday against Milan, then the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 away to Bayern Munich.
“If we are thinking about Bayern now, we’re out of our minds. If we don’t win with Milan, then we’ll really struggle to have confidence going into the Champions League,” added Luis Alberto.
“This is a really strange season, every time the game comes along where we feel like we’ve taken a step forward, instead we take two steps back.”
#LuisAlberto: “Non siamo stati all’altezza della partita. Fortunati a finire il primo tempo in vantaggio” https://t.co/OWqPdPelYt
— Alfredo Pedullà (@AlfredoPedulla) February 26, 2024